Abstract
The fruiting bodies of fungi sprout from mycelium are capable of accumulating significant amounts of trace elements, both metals and metalloids. Content of these elements in fruiting bodies may exceed their concentration in the substrate where fungi develop. Among the elements the radioactive nuclides are also present. In this work health risk caused by increased radioactivity dose absorbed with Xerocomus badius bay bolete consumption was estimated. In analysis concentrations of radioactive isotopes 137Cs and 40K were taken into consideration. It was found that moderate ingestion of bay bolete does not create health risk due to increased radioactive substances intake. The amount of consumed mushrooms that could deliver the dose exceeding the safe one, is rather improbable in real life. Possible relationships between radioactive isotopes concentrations and concentrations of common alkali metals were investigated using methods designed for compositional data analysis. No clear relationships between 137Cs, Ca, K and Mg concentrations in samples of bay bolete were found and significant influence of outlying data points on statistical inference was noticed.